Geo database replication

Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

This document describes the minimal required steps to replicate your primary GitLab database to a secondary site’s database. You may have to change some values, based on attributes including your database’s setup and size.

If your GitLab installation uses external PostgreSQL instances (not managed by a Linux package installation), the roles cannot perform all necessary configuration steps. In this case, use the Geo with external PostgreSQL instances process instead.

The stages of the setup process must be completed in the documented order. If not, complete all prior stages before proceeding.

Ensure the secondary site is running the same version of GitLab Enterprise Edition as the primary site. Confirm you have added a license for a Premium or Ultimate subscription to your primary site.

Be sure to read and review all of these steps before you execute them in your testing or production environments.

Single instance database replication

A single instance database replication is easier to set up and still provides the same Geo capabilities as a clustered alternative. It’s useful for setups running on a single machine or trying to evaluate Geo for a future clustered installation.

A single instance can be expanded to a clustered version using Patroni, which is recommended for a highly available architecture.

Follow the instructions below on how to set up PostgreSQL replication as a single instance database. Alternatively, you can look at the Multi-node database replication instructions on setting up replication with a Patroni cluster.

PostgreSQL replication

The GitLab primary site where the write operations happen connects to the primary database server. Secondary sites connect to their own database servers (which are read-only).

You should use PostgreSQL’s replication slots to ensure that the primary site retains all the data necessary for the secondary sites to recover. See below for more details.

The following guide assumes that:

You are using the Linux package (so are using PostgreSQL 12 or later), which includes the pg_basebackup tool.
You have a primary site already set up (the GitLab server you are replicating from), running PostgreSQL (or equivalent version) managed by your Linux package installation, and you have a new secondary site set up with the same versions of PostgreSQL, OS, and GitLab on all sites.

Geo works with streaming replication. Logical replication is not supported at this time. There is an issue where support is being discussed.

Step 1. Configure the primary site

SSH into your GitLab primary site and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add a unique name for your site:

##
## The unique identifier for the Geo site. See
## https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/administration/geo_sites.html#common-settings
##
gitlab_rails['geo_node_name'] = '<site_name_here>'

Reconfigure the primary site for the change to take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Execute the command below to define the site as primary site:
```
gitlab-ctl set-geo-primary-node
```
This command uses your defined external_url in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb.

Define a password for the gitlab database user:

Generate a MD5 hash of the desired password:

gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab
# Enter password: <your_db_password_here>
# Confirm password: <your_db_password_here>
# fca0b89a972d69f00eb3ec98a5838484

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

# Fill with the hash generated by `gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab`
postgresql['sql_user_password'] = '<md5_hash_of_your_db_password>'

# Every node that runs Puma or Sidekiq needs to have the database
# password specified as below. If you have a high-availability setup, this
# must be present in all application nodes.
gitlab_rails['db_password'] = '<your_db_password_here>'

Define a password for the database replication user.

Use the username defined in /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb under the postgresql['sql_replication_user'] setting. The default value is gitlab_replicator. If you changed the username to something else, adapt the instructions below.

Generate a MD5 hash of the desired password:

gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab_replicator
# Enter password: <your_replication_password_here>
# Confirm password: <your_replication_password_here>
# 950233c0dfc2f39c64cf30457c3b7f1e

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

# Fill with the hash generated by `gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab_replicator`
postgresql['sql_replication_password'] = '<md5_hash_of_your_replication_password>'

If you are using an external database not managed by your Linux package installation, you need to create the gitlab_replicator user and define a password for that user manually:

--- Create a new user 'replicator'
CREATE USER gitlab_replicator;

--- Set/change a password and grants replication privilege
ALTER USER gitlab_replicator WITH REPLICATION ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '<replication_password>';

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and set the role to geo_primary_role (for more information, see Geo roles):
```
## Geo Primary role
roles(['geo_primary_role'])
```

Configure PostgreSQL to listen on network interfaces:

For security reasons, PostgreSQL does not listen on any network interfaces by default. However, Geo requires the secondary site to be able to connect to the primary site’s database. For this reason, you need the IP address of each site.

For external PostgreSQL instances, see additional instructions.

If you are using a cloud provider, you can look up the addresses for each Geo site through your cloud provider’s management console.

To look up the address of a Geo site, SSH into the Geo site and execute:

##
## Private address
##
ip route get 255.255.255.255 | awk '{print "Private address:", $NF; exit}'

##
## Public address
##
echo "External address: $(curl --silent "ipinfo.io/ip")"

In most cases, the following addresses are used to configure GitLab Geo:

Configuration	Address
`postgresql['listen_address']`	Primary site’s public or VPC private address.
`postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses']`	Primary and Secondary sites’ public or VPC private addresses.

If you are using Google Cloud Platform, SoftLayer, or any other vendor that provides a virtual private cloud (VPC), we recommend using the primary and secondary sites’ “private” or “internal” addresses for postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] and postgresql['listen_address'].

The listen_address option opens PostgreSQL up to network connections with the interface corresponding to the given address. See the PostgreSQL documentation for more details.

If you need to use 0.0.0.0 or * as the listen_address, you also must add 127.0.0.1/32 to the postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] setting, to allow Rails to connect through 127.0.0.1. For more information, see issue 5258.

Depending on your network configuration, the suggested addresses may be incorrect. If your primary site and secondary sites connect over a local area network, or a virtual network connecting availability zones like Amazon’s VPC or Google’s VPC, you should use the secondary site’s private address for postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'].

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following, replacing the IP addresses with addresses appropriate to your network configuration:

##
## Primary address
## - replace '<primary_node_ip>' with the public or VPC address of your Geo primary node
##
postgresql['listen_address'] = '<primary_site_ip>'

##
# Allow PostgreSQL client authentication from the primary and secondary IPs. These IPs may be
# public or VPC addresses in CIDR format, for example ['198.51.100.1/32', '198.51.100.2/32']
##
postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] = ['<primary_site_ip>/32', '<secondary_site_ip>/32']

##
## Replication settings
##
# postgresql['max_replication_slots'] = 1 # Set this to be the number of Geo secondary nodes if you have more than one
# postgresql['max_wal_senders'] = 10
# postgresql['wal_keep_segments'] = 10

Disable automatic database migrations temporarily until PostgreSQL is restarted and listening on the private address. Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and change the configuration to false:
```
## Disable automatic database migrations
gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false
```
Optional: If you want to add another secondary site, the relevant setting would look like:
```
postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] = ['<primary_site_ip>/32', '<secondary_site_ip>/32', '<another_secondary_site_ip>/32']
```
You may also want to edit the wal_keep_segments and max_wal_senders to match your database replication requirements. Consult the PostgreSQL - Replication documentation for more information.
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the database listen changes and the replication slot changes to be applied:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Restart PostgreSQL for its changes to take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl restart postgresql
```
Re-enable migrations now that PostgreSQL is restarted and listening on the private address.
Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and change the configuration to true:
```
gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = true
```
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Now that the PostgreSQL server is set up to accept remote connections, run netstat -plnt | grep 5432 to ensure that PostgreSQL is listening on port 5432 to the primary site’s private address.
A certificate was automatically generated when GitLab was reconfigured. This is used automatically to protect your PostgreSQL traffic from eavesdroppers. To protect against active (“man-in-the-middle”) attackers, the secondary site needs a copy of the CA that signed the certificate. In the case of this self-signed certificate, make a copy of the PostgreSQL server.crt file on the primary site by running this command:
```
cat ~gitlab-psql/data/server.crt
```
Copy the output to the clipboard or into a local file. You need it when setting up the secondary site! The certificate is not sensitive data.
However, this certificate is created with a generic PostgreSQL Common Name. For this, you must use the verify-ca mode when replicating the database, otherwise, the hostname mismatch causes errors.
Optional. Generate your own SSL certificate and manually configure SSL for PostgreSQL, instead of using the generated certificate.
You need at least the SSL certificate and key. Set the postgresql['ssl_cert_file'] and postgresql['ssl_key_file'] values to their full paths, as per the Database SSL docs.
This allows you to use the verify-full SSL mode when replicating the database and get the extra benefit of verifying the full hostname in the CN.
You can use this certificate (that you have also set in postgresql['ssl_cert_file']) instead of the certificate from the point above going forward. This allows you to use verify-full without replication errors if the CN matches.
On your primary database, open /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and search for postgresql['ssl_ca_file'] (the CA certificate). Copy its value to your clipboard that you’ll later paste into server.crt.

Step 2. Configure the secondary server

SSH into your GitLab secondary site and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```
Stop application server and Sidekiq:
```
gitlab-ctl stop puma
gitlab-ctl stop sidekiq
```
This step is important so you don’t try to execute anything before the site is fully configured.
Check TCP connectivity to the primary site’s PostgreSQL server:
```
gitlab-rake gitlab:tcp_check[<primary_site_ip>,5432]
```
If this step fails, you may be using the wrong IP address, or a firewall may be preventing access to the site. Check the IP address, paying close attention to the difference between public and private addresses. Ensure that, if a firewall is present, the secondary site is permitted to connect to the primary site on port 5432.
Create a file server.crt in the secondary site, with the content you got on the last step of the primary site’s setup:
```
editor server.crt
```
Set up PostgreSQL TLS verification on the secondary site:
Install the server.crt file:
```
install \
   -D \
   -o gitlab-psql \
   -g gitlab-psql \
   -m 0400 \
   -T server.crt ~gitlab-psql/.postgresql/root.crt
```
PostgreSQL now only recognizes that exact certificate when verifying TLS connections. The certificate can only be replicated by someone with access to the private key, which is only present on the primary site.
Test that the gitlab-psql user can connect to the primary site’s database (the default database name is gitlabhq_production on a Linux package installation):
```
sudo \
   -u gitlab-psql /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/psql \
   --list \
   -U gitlab_replicator \
   -d "dbname=gitlabhq_production sslmode=verify-ca" \
   -W \
   -h <primary_site_ip>
```
If you are using manually generated certificates and want to use sslmode=verify-full to benefit from the full hostname verification, replace verify-ca with verify-full when running the command.

When prompted, enter the plaintext password you set in the first step for the gitlab_replicator user. If all worked correctly, you should see the list of the primary site’s databases.
A failure to connect here indicates that the TLS configuration is incorrect. Ensure that the contents of ~gitlab-psql/data/server.crt on the primary site match the contents of ~gitlab-psql/.postgresql/root.crt on the secondary site.

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and set the role to geo_secondary_role (for more information, see Geo roles):

##
## Geo Secondary role
## - configure dependent flags automatically to enable Geo
##
roles(['geo_secondary_role'])

Configure PostgreSQL:

This step is similar to how you configured the primary instance. You must enable this, even if using a single node.

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following, replacing the IP addresses with addresses appropriate to your network configuration:

##
## Secondary address
## - replace '<secondary_site_ip>' with the public or VPC address of your Geo secondary site
##
postgresql['listen_address'] = '<secondary_site_ip>'
postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] = ['<secondary_site_ip>/32']

##
## Database credentials password (defined previously in primary site)
## - replicate same values here as defined in primary site
##
postgresql['sql_replication_password'] = '<md5_hash_of_your_replication_password>'
postgresql['sql_user_password'] = '<md5_hash_of_your_db_password>'
gitlab_rails['db_password'] = '<your_db_password_here>'

For external PostgreSQL instances, see additional instructions. If you bring a former primary site back online to serve as a secondary site, then you also must remove roles(['geo_primary_role']) or geo_primary_role['enable'] = true.

Reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Restart PostgreSQL for the IP change to take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl restart postgresql
```

Step 3. Initiate the replication process

Below is a script that connects the database on the secondary site to the database on the primary site. This script replicates the database and creates the needed files for streaming replication.

The directories used are the defaults that are set up in a Linux package installation. If you have changed any defaults, configure the script accordingly (replacing any directories and paths).

Make sure to run this on the secondary site as it removes all PostgreSQL’s data before running pg_basebackup.

SSH into your GitLab secondary site and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```
Choose a database-friendly name to use for your secondary site to use as the replication slot name. For example, if your domain is secondary.geo.example.com, use secondary_example as the slot name as shown in the commands below.
Execute the command below to start a backup/restore and begin the replication

Each Geo secondary site must have its own unique replication slot name. Using the same slot name between two secondaries breaks PostgreSQL replication.

Replication slot names must only contain lowercase letters, numbers, and the underscore character.

When prompted, enter the plaintext password you set up for the gitlab_replicator user in the first step.
```
gitlab-ctl replicate-geo-database \
   --slot-name=<secondary_site_name> \
   --host=<primary_site_ip> \
   --sslmode=verify-ca
```
If you have generated custom PostgreSQL certificates, you need to use --sslmode=verify-full (or omit the sslmode line entirely), to benefit from the extra validation of the full host name in the certificate CN / SAN for additional security. Otherwise, using the automatically created certificate with verify-full fails, as it has a generic PostgreSQL CN which doesn’t match the --host value in this command.

This command also takes a number of additional options. You can use --help to list them all, but here are some tips:
- If your primary site has a single node, use the primary node host as the --host parameter.
- If your primary site is using an external PostgreSQL database, you need to adjust the --host parameter:
  - For PgBouncer setups, target the actual PostgreSQL database host directly, not the PgBouncer address.
  - For Patroni configurations, target the current Patroni leader host.
  - When using a load balancer (for example, HAProxy), if the load balancer is configured to always route to the Patroni leader, you can target the load balancer’s If not, you must target the actual database host.
  - For setups with a dedicated PostgreSQL node, target the dedicated database host directly.
- Change the --slot-name to the name of the replication slot to be used on the primary database. The script attempts to create the replication slot automatically if it does not exist.
- If PostgreSQL is listening on a non-standard port, add --port=.
- If your database is too large to be transferred in 30 minutes, you need to increase the timeout. For example, use --backup-timeout=3600 if you expect the initial replication to take under an hour.
- Pass --sslmode=disable to skip PostgreSQL TLS authentication altogether (for example, you know the network path is secure, or you are using a site-to-site VPN). It is not safe over the public Internet!
- You can read more details about each sslmode in the PostgreSQL documentation. The instructions above are carefully written to ensure protection against both passive eavesdroppers and active “man-in-the-middle” attackers.
- If you’re repurposing an old site into a Geo secondary site, you must add --force to the command line.
- When not in a production machine, you can disable the backup step (if you are certain this is what you want) by adding --skip-backup.

The replication process is now complete.

PgBouncer support (optional)

PgBouncer may be used with GitLab Geo to pool PostgreSQL connections, which can improve performance even when using in a single instance installation.

You should use PgBouncer if you use GitLab in a highly available configuration with a cluster of nodes supporting a Geo primary site and two other clusters of nodes supporting a Geo secondary site. You need two PgBouncer nodes: one for the main database and the other for the tracking database. For more information, see the relevant documentation.

Changing the replication password

To change the password for the replication user when using PostgreSQL instances managed by a Linux package installation:

On the GitLab Geo primary site:

The default value for the replication user is gitlab_replicator, but if you’ve set a custom replication user in your /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb under the postgresql['sql_replication_user'] setting, ensure you adapt the following instructions for your own user.

Generate an MD5 hash of the desired password:

sudo gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab_replicator
# Enter password: <your_replication_password_here>
# Confirm password: <your_replication_password_here>
# 950233c0dfc2f39c64cf30457c3b7f1e

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:

# Fill with the hash generated by `gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab_replicator`
postgresql['sql_replication_password'] = '<md5_hash_of_your_replication_password>'

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab to change the replication user’s password in PostgreSQL:
```
sudo gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Restart PostgreSQL for the replication password change to take effect:
```
sudo gitlab-ctl restart postgresql
```

Until the password is updated on any secondary sites, the PostgreSQL log on the secondaries report the following error message:

FATAL:  could not connect to the primary server: FATAL:  password authentication failed for user "gitlab_replicator"

On all GitLab Geo secondary sites:

The first step isn’t necessary from a configuration perspective, because the hashed 'sql_replication_password' is not used on the GitLab Geo secondary sites. However in the event that secondary site needs to be promoted to the GitLab Geo primary, make sure to match the 'sql_replication_password' in the secondary site configuration.
Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb:
```
# Fill with the hash generated by `gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab_replicator` on the Geo primary
postgresql['sql_replication_password'] = '<md5_hash_of_your_replication_password>'
```
During the initial replication setup, the gitlab-ctl replicate-geo-database command writes the plaintext password for the replication user account to two locations:
- gitlab-geo.conf: Used by the PostgreSQL replication process, written to the PostgreSQL data directory, by default at /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql/data/gitlab-geo.conf.
- .pgpass: Used by the gitlab-psql user, located by default at /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql/.pgpass.
Update the plaintext password in both of these files, and restart PostgreSQL:
```
sudo gitlab-ctl restart postgresql
```

Multi-node database replication

Migrating a single PostgreSQL node to Patroni

Before the introduction of Patroni, Geo had no support for Linux package installations for HA setups on the secondary site.

With Patroni, this support is now possible. To migrate the existing PostgreSQL to Patroni:

Make sure you have a Consul cluster setup on the secondary (similar to how you set it up on the primary site).
Configure a permanent replication slot.
Configure the internal load balancer.
Configure a PgBouncer node
Configure a Standby Cluster on that single node machine.

You end up with a Standby Cluster with a single node. That allows you to add additional Patroni nodes by following the same instructions above.

Patroni support

Patroni is the official replication management solution for Geo. Patroni can be used to build a highly available cluster on the primary and a secondary Geo site. Using Patroni on a secondary site is optional and you don’t have to use the same number of nodes on each Geo site.

For instructions on how to set up Patroni on the primary site, see the relevant documentation.

Configuring Patroni cluster for a Geo secondary site

In a Geo secondary site, the main PostgreSQL database is a read-only replica of the primary site’s PostgreSQL database.

A production-ready and secure setup requires at least:

3 Consul nodes (primary and secondary sites)
2 Patroni nodes (primary and secondary sites)
1 PgBouncer node (primary and secondary sites)
1 internal load-balancer (primary site only)

The internal load balancer provides a single endpoint for connecting to the Patroni cluster’s leader whenever a new leader is elected. The load balancer is required for enabling cascading replication from the secondary sites.

Be sure to use password credentials and other database best practices.

Step 1. Configure Patroni permanent replication slot on the primary site

Set up a persistent replication slot on the primary database to ensure continuous data replication from the primary database to the Patroni cluster on the secondary node.

Primary with Patroni cluster

To set up database replication with Patroni on a secondary site, you must configure a permanent replication slot on the primary site’s Patroni cluster, and ensure password authentication is used.

On each node running a Patroni instance on the primary site starting on the Patroni Leader instance:

SSH into your Patroni instance and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following:

roles(['patroni_role'])

consul['services'] = %w(postgresql)
consul['configuration'] = {
  retry_join: %w[CONSUL_PRIMARY1_IP CONSUL_PRIMARY2_IP CONSUL_PRIMARY3_IP]
}

# You need one entry for each secondary, with a unique name following PostgreSQL slot_name constraints:
#
# Configuration syntax is: 'unique_slotname' => { 'type' => 'physical' },
# We don't support setting a permanent replication slot for logical replication type
patroni['replication_slots'] = {
  'geo_secondary' => { 'type' => 'physical' }
}

patroni['use_pg_rewind'] = true
patroni['postgresql']['max_wal_senders'] = 8 # Use double of the amount of patroni/reserved slots (3 patronis + 1 reserved slot for a Geo secondary).
patroni['postgresql']['max_replication_slots'] = 8 # Use double of the amount of patroni/reserved slots (3 patronis + 1 reserved slot for a Geo secondary).
patroni['username'] = 'PATRONI_API_USERNAME'
patroni['password'] = 'PATRONI_API_PASSWORD'
patroni['replication_password'] = 'PLAIN_TEXT_POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD'

# Add all patroni nodes to the allowlist
patroni['allowlist'] = %w[
  127.0.0.1/32
  PATRONI_PRIMARY1_IP/32 PATRONI_PRIMARY2_IP/32 PATRONI_PRIMARY3_IP/32
  PATRONI_SECONDARY1_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY2_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY3_IP/32
]

# We list all secondary instances as they can all become a Standby Leader
postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] = %w[
  PATRONI_PRIMARY1_IP/32 PATRONI_PRIMARY2_IP/32 PATRONI_PRIMARY3_IP/32 PATRONI_PRIMARY_PGBOUNCER/32
  PATRONI_SECONDARY1_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY2_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY3_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY_PGBOUNCER/32
]

postgresql['pgbouncer_user_password'] = 'PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD_HASH'
postgresql['sql_replication_password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_HASH'
postgresql['sql_user_password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH'
postgresql['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0' # You can use a public or VPC address here instead

Reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```

Primary with single PostgreSQL instance

SSH into your single node instance and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following:

postgresql['max_wal_senders'] = 2 # Use 2 per secondary site (1 temporary slot for initial Patroni replication + 1 reserved slot for a Geo secondary)
postgresql['max_replication_slots'] = 2 # Use 2 per secondary site (1 temporary slot for initial Patroni replication + 1 reserved slot for a Geo secondary)

Reconfigure GitLab:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Restart the PostgreSQL service so the new changes take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl restart postgresql
```
Start a Database console
```
gitlab-psql
```

Configure permanent replication slot on the primary site

select pg_create_physical_replication_slot('geo_secondary')

Optional: If primary does not have PgBouncer, but secondary does:

Configure the pgbouncer user on the primary site and add the necessary pg_shadow_lookup function for PgBouncer included with the Linux package. PgBouncer on the secondary server should still be able to connect to PostgreSQL nodes on the secondary site.

--- Create a new user 'pgbouncer'
CREATE USER pgbouncer;

--- Set/change a password and grants replication privilege
ALTER USER pgbouncer WITH REPLICATION ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '<pgbouncer_password_from_secondary>';

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.pg_shadow_lookup(in i_username text, out username text, out password text) RETURNS record AS $$
BEGIN
    SELECT usename, passwd FROM pg_catalog.pg_shadow
    WHERE usename = i_username INTO username, password;
    RETURN;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql SECURITY DEFINER;

REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION public.pg_shadow_lookup(text) FROM public, pgbouncer;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION public.pg_shadow_lookup(text) TO pgbouncer;

Step 2. Configure the internal load balancer on the primary site

To avoid reconfiguring the Standby Leader on the secondary site whenever a new Leader is elected on the primary site, you should set up a TCP internal load balancer. This load balancer provides a single endpoint for connecting to the Patroni cluster’s Leader.

Linux packages do not include a Load Balancer. Here’s how you could do it with HAProxy.

The following IPs and names are used as an example:

10.6.0.21: Patroni 1 (patroni1.internal)
10.6.0.22: Patroni 2 (patroni2.internal)
10.6.0.23: Patroni 3 (patroni3.internal)

global
    log /dev/log local0
    log localhost local1 notice
    log stdout format raw local0

defaults
    log global
    default-server inter 3s fall 3 rise 2 on-marked-down shutdown-sessions

frontend internal-postgresql-tcp-in
    bind *:5432
    mode tcp
    option tcplog

    default_backend postgresql

backend postgresql
    mode tcp
    option httpchk
    http-check expect status 200

    server patroni1.internal 10.6.0.21:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008
    server patroni2.internal 10.6.0.22:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008
    server patroni3.internal 10.6.0.23:5432 maxconn 100 check port 8008

For further guidance, refer to the documentation for your preferred load balancer.

Step 3. Configure PgBouncer nodes on the secondary site

A production-ready and highly available configuration requires at least three Consul nodes and a minimum of one PgBouncer node. However, it is recommended to have one PgBouncer node per database node. An internal load balancer (TCP) is required when there is more than one PgBouncer service node. The internal load balancer provides a single endpoint for connecting to the PgBouncer cluster. For more information, see the relevant documentation.

On each node running a PgBouncer instance on the secondary site:

SSH into your PgBouncer node and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following:

# Disable all components except Pgbouncer and Consul agent
roles(['pgbouncer_role'])

# PgBouncer configuration
pgbouncer['admin_users'] = %w(pgbouncer gitlab-consul)
pgbouncer['users'] = {
'gitlab-consul': {
   # Generate it with: `gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 gitlab-consul`
   password: 'GITLAB_CONSUL_PASSWORD_HASH'
 },
  'pgbouncer': {
    # Generate it with: `gitlab-ctl pg-password-md5 pgbouncer`
    password: 'PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD_HASH'
  }
}

# Consul configuration
consul['watchers'] = %w(postgresql)
consul['configuration'] = {
  retry_join: %w[CONSUL_SECONDARY1_IP CONSUL_SECONDARY2_IP CONSUL_SECONDARY3_IP]
}
consul['monitoring_service_discovery'] =  true

Reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
Create a .pgpass file so Consul is able to reload PgBouncer. Enter the PLAIN_TEXT_PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD twice when asked:
```
gitlab-ctl write-pgpass --host 127.0.0.1 --database pgbouncer --user pgbouncer --hostuser gitlab-consul
```
Reload the PgBouncer service:
```
gitlab-ctl hup pgbouncer
```

Step 4. Configure a Standby cluster on the secondary site

If you are converting a secondary site with a single PostgreSQL instance to a Patroni Cluster, you must start on the PostgreSQL instance. It becomes the Patroni Standby Leader instance, and then you can switch over to another replica if you need to.

For each node running a Patroni instance on the secondary site:

SSH into your Patroni node and sign in as root:
```
sudo -i
```

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following:

roles(['consul_role', 'patroni_role'])

consul['enable'] = true
consul['configuration'] = {
  retry_join: %w[CONSUL_SECONDARY1_IP CONSUL_SECONDARY2_IP CONSUL_SECONDARY3_IP]
}
consul['services'] = %w(postgresql)

postgresql['md5_auth_cidr_addresses'] = [
  'PATRONI_SECONDARY1_IP/32', 'PATRONI_SECONDARY2_IP/32', 'PATRONI_SECONDARY3_IP/32', 'PATRONI_SECONDARY_PGBOUNCER/32',
  # Any other instance that needs access to the database as per documentation
]


# Add patroni nodes to the allowlist
patroni['allowlist'] = %w[
  127.0.0.1/32
  PATRONI_SECONDARY1_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY2_IP/32 PATRONI_SECONDARY3_IP/32
]

patroni['standby_cluster']['enable'] = true
patroni['standby_cluster']['host'] = 'INTERNAL_LOAD_BALANCER_PRIMARY_IP'
patroni['standby_cluster']['port'] = INTERNAL_LOAD_BALANCER_PRIMARY_PORT
patroni['standby_cluster']['primary_slot_name'] = 'geo_secondary' # Or the unique replication slot name you setup before
patroni['username'] = 'PATRONI_API_USERNAME'
patroni['password'] = 'PATRONI_API_PASSWORD'
patroni['replication_password'] = 'PLAIN_TEXT_POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD'
patroni['use_pg_rewind'] = true
patroni['postgresql']['max_wal_senders'] = 5 # A minimum of three for one replica, plus two for each additional replica
patroni['postgresql']['max_replication_slots'] = 5 # A minimum of three for one replica, plus two for each additional replica

postgresql['pgbouncer_user_password'] = 'PGBOUNCER_PASSWORD_HASH'
postgresql['sql_replication_password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_REPLICATION_PASSWORD_HASH'
postgresql['sql_user_password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD_HASH'
postgresql['listen_address'] = '0.0.0.0' # You can use a public or VPC address here instead

gitlab_rails['db_password'] = 'POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD'
gitlab_rails['enable'] = true
gitlab_rails['auto_migrate'] = false

When configuring patroni['standby_cluster']['host'] and patroni['standby_cluster']['port']: - INTERNAL_LOAD_BALANCER_PRIMARY_IP must point to the primary internal load balancer IP. - INTERNAL_LOAD_BALANCER_PRIMARY_PORT must point to the frontend port configured for the primary Patroni cluster leader. Do not use the PgBouncer frontend port.

Reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect. This step is required to bootstrap PostgreSQL users and settings.
- If this is a fresh installation of Patroni:
```
gitlab-ctl reconfigure
```
- If you are configuring a Patroni standby cluster on a site that previously had a working Patroni cluster:
  1. Stop Patroni on all nodes that are managed by Patroni, including cascade replicas:
    gitlab-ctl stop patroni
  2. Run the following on the leader Patroni node to recreate the standby cluster:
    rm -rf /var/opt/gitlab/postgresql/data /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/patronictl -c /var/opt/gitlab/patroni/patroni.yaml remove postgresql-ha gitlab-ctl reconfigure
  3. Start Patroni on the leader Patroni node to initiate the replication process from the primary database:
    gitlab-ctl start patroni
  4. Check the status of the Patroni cluster:
    gitlab-ctl patroni members
    Verify that:
    - The current Patroni node appears in the output.
    - The role is Standby Leader. The role might initially show Replica.
    - The state is Running. The state might initially show Creating replica.
    Wait until the node’s role stabilizes as Standby Leader and the state is Running. This might take a few minutes.
  5. When the leader Patroni node is the Standby Leader and is Running, start Patroni on the other Patroni nodes in the standby cluster:
    gitlab-ctl start patroni
    The other Patroni nodes should join the new standby cluster as replicas and begin replicating from the leader Patroni node automatically.
Verify the cluster status:
```
gitlab-ctl patroni members
```
Ensure all Patroni nodes are listed in the Running state. There should be one Standby Leader node and multiple Replica nodes.

Migrating a single tracking database node to Patroni

Before the introduction of Patroni, Geo provided no support for Linux package installations for HA setups on the secondary site.

With Patroni, it’s now possible to support HA setups. However, some restrictions in Patroni prevent the management of two different clusters on the same machine. You should set up a new Patroni cluster for the tracking database by following the same instructions above.

The secondary nodes backfill the new tracking database, and no data synchronization is required.

Configuring Patroni cluster for the tracking PostgreSQL database

Secondary Geo sites use a separate PostgreSQL installation as a tracking database to keep track of replication status and automatically recover from potential replication issues.

If you want to run the Geo tracking database on a single node, see Configure the Geo tracking database on the Geo secondary site.

The Linux package does not support running the Geo tracking database in a highly available configuration. In particular, failover does not work properly. See the feature request issue.

If you want to run the Geo tracking database in a highly available configuration, you can connect the secondary site to an external PostgreSQL database, such as a cloud-managed database, or a manually configured Patroni cluster (not managed by the GitLab Linux package). Follow Geo with external PostgreSQL instances.

Troubleshooting

Read the troubleshooting document.

Geo database replication

Single instance database replication

PostgreSQL replication

Step 1. Configure the primary site

Step 2. Configure the secondary server

Step 3. Initiate the replication process

PgBouncer support (optional)

Changing the replication password

Multi-node database replication

Migrating a single PostgreSQL node to Patroni

Patroni support

Configuring Patroni cluster for a Geo secondary site

Step 1. Configure Patroni permanent replication slot on the primary site

Step 2. Configure the internal load balancer on the primary site

Step 3. Configure PgBouncer nodes on the secondary site

Step 4. Configure a Standby cluster on the secondary site

Migrating a single tracking database node to Patroni

Configuring Patroni cluster for the tracking PostgreSQL database

Troubleshooting

Help & feedback

Docs

Product

Feature availability and product trials

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